


I Can't Handle This Alone

by HMA64



Series: Normal Is Boring and Subjective. [7]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: ADHD Anne Boleyn, ASD Catherine Parr, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Sensory Overload, queens as family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 09:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27968468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HMA64/pseuds/HMA64
Summary: The Queens decide to head to a local shopping centre while they're on tour.Anne gets separated.Well...this isn't going to end well.
Relationships: Anne Boleyn/Catherine Parr
Series: Normal Is Boring and Subjective. [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1881718
Comments: 9
Kudos: 65





	I Can't Handle This Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Songbirdss26 requested "Anne getting lost and overstimulated and all alone. I'll let you decide the comfort part ;)"
> 
> Anyway, my pen slipped abt it became a full fic XD  
> (Clearly, the Pain Project didn't get all the Anne Angst out of my system lol)

_How the fuck do I get myself into these situations?_ Thought Anne, as she wandered through the shopping centre, desperately looking around for the others. 

SIX was currently on tour. The girls had ended up in a massive shopping centre not far from the theatre they would be performing in the next day and decided to look around. And Anne had looked away for ~~5 minutes~~ 10 seconds, just to look at a place that sold lava lamps, and the others had vanished.

So now, she was lost and on her own, in a place she didn't know.

She'd texted Kitty to find out where the others were and her darling cousin had replied they were by 'the ice cream place', along with a truly unnecessary amount of laughing emojis. 

Unfortunately, it turned out there were quite a few ice cream places in this hellhole of a place, and so far, none of them had housed Anne's friends.

After a little more wandering, Anne was starting to get overstimulated. This place was loud and the lights were super bright. She started rubbing her arms as she walked, almost like she was cold, trying to focus on where she was going.

She turned left and down another walkway, blinking hard to try and keep the lights from messing with her eyes...

...and felt her nose burn and her head immediately begin to ache. She was pretty sure she almost gagged.

There was a LUSH directly next to her. 

She hated that place. It was too bright and it smelled too strong and of too many different things and she was way too overstimulated to handle even walking passed it right now and...and she was on her own.

Anne was on her own, having a sensory overload, _alone_ , for the first time in _centuries_. She looked straight down to her feet and slowly kept walking, trying not to take a breath until she was well past the store. Her eyes burned with unshed tears, her clothes felt like needles against her skin and her head felt like it was going to explode.

She nearly sobbed from pain when she felt her phone vibrate.

**_No. 1: hey, where are you? You're taking a while 💛_ **

Her hands trembled as she lifted her phone, took a picture of her hiding spot and hit send.

_**Gremlin: helpme too much sensory shit** _

Then she dropped her phone and covered her ears with a whine, squeezing her eyes shut tightly.

Fuck, her head hurt so much. An intense, but somehow also dull, ache right behind her left eye. She dug her nails into her arms, scratching at them hard as she chased the horrible, prickly, itching feeling across her skin, all the while fighting the urge to just start sobbing. 

_They left me,_ she thought, as the pain intensified, _they all left me..._

* * *

It took nearly 10 minutes for anyone to find her. 

When they did, it was Catalina and Kitty. Catalina texted the others to say where they were, while Kitty slowly went over to, and crouched beside, she older cousin. 

"Anne," she said, quietly, "Annie, can you hear me?" Anne didn't look at her, but Kitty saw her nod slightly. "Okay. Can you talk?" She asked, as Lina came over and crouched on Anne's other side.

A violent shake of the head.

"Okay, _Esmeralda._ " Lina's voice was firm but still soft, "Can we touch you? You're gonna make your arms bleed at this rate."

Another violent shake of the head, though Anne’s hands did stop their frantic scratching at her arms. Catalina sighed, "Okay Anne, we won't touch you, it's okay."

Kitty saw her cousin’s discarded phone on the floor and picked it up, turning the brightness down and placing it on Anne's knee. "Think you could answer some things on your phone? For when the others get here?" Anne hesitated, before reaching for her phone and letting out a deep exhale. As she looked up to see the screen, the other two caught a glimpse at how red Anne's face was. The first and fifth Queens shared a look, before Catalina stood up and headed off to find the other Queens, leaving Kitty with Anne. Kitty took a deep breath to try and keep herself calm. Seeing Anne in a state like this; shaking, clearly in pain and face covered in tears always just felt...wrong. 

"What's the worst right now?" She asked, moving so she was blocking Anne from the view of anyone walking past.

The way Anne's hands shook as she typed confirmed to Kitty that this was, indeed, really bad. After a moment of fumbled typing, Anne turned her phone so the pink Queen could see.

_**head behind eye. feel sick too.** _

Kitty nodded as she read. "Okay...okay." She muttered, to herself more than to Anne, "Do you know what caused it?" The older girl visibly tensed at the question and immediately started rubbing at her nose. Kitty barely tapped Anne's knee. "Annie, focus on me, come on." Anne jumped and looked at her again, "Hey, there you are." Said Kitty, with a small smile, "You're alright, I've got you." 

Anne hesitated for a second, before typing again.

_**LUSH.** _

"Shit, Annie I'm so sorry." Whispered Kitty. She heard someone cough beside her and turned, relief flooding her system as she saw Cathy and Jane standing by her, Catalina and Anna a little ways away. Cathy moved to crouch in front of her girlfriend, her heart borderline breaking at how exhausted Anne looked. The second Queen leaned forward and rested her forehead on Cathy's shoulder, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.

* * *

An hour later, they were back at the hotel and Anne was still kind of out of it. Cathy and Jane had gotten her back to their room, Catalina and Kitty had gone to a few shops and bought some foods they knew Anne liked after an overload and Anna had gone to a shop and gotten a super soft blanket and a teddy bear to give Anne something to ground with. It had kind of worked: Anne hadn't eaten anything yet, but she'd been fidgeting with the blanket from her spot beside Cathy ever since Anna had handed it to her.

"How're you feeling love?" Asked Catalina, as she handed Anne a glass of water. The green Queen sat up slightly to take it and sipped it. 

"You-" She took another breath as she tried to make her brain cooperate with her, "You guys...l-left me." Cathy pulled her closer and pressed a kiss into dark hair. "I couldn't...find any of you and I was o-on my own and it _hurt_..." She trailed off as she felt her eyes well with tears again and settled for tucking her head into Cathy's neck.

The others looked between each other.

"Anne..." Started Jane, before cutting herself off, unsure of what to say.

"We all split up after we came out of that lights shop." Said Anna, apologetically, "Lina told us to meet up at the ice cream place back where we came in. We thought you heard her."

"That's why I just said 'the ice cream place' in my text." Kitty explained, guilty, "I thought you knew where I meant. Anne, I'm so sorry!"

"All of us are." Said Catalina, "We never would have left you if we thought you didn't know where to meet us."

"I feel like a child." Murmured Anne. 

"You're not." Cathy was quick to respond, running a hand through Anne's hair, "God knows I can't handle sensory overloads by myself, and neither of us should. If you need us around, just like if I need you guys around, just tell us. Next time we all split up, we'll make sure you know where to meet up if you need us." She kissed Anne then, and let the other woman fully curl up against her. "Get some sleep, okay? We'll see how you feel in the morning and if the answer is 'not good', we'll get one of the alters to cover you. Okay?"

"Okay." Said Anne, sleepily, "Love you guys."

Cathy chuckled, "We love you too Anne."

**Author's Note:**

> Personal thought as someone with sensory processing difficulties who starts developing a migraine if I even LOOK at a fucking LUSH: it should be illegal for LUSH stores to be inside shopping centres/malls. They should be on the high street or something like that, or just be market stalls! 
> 
> (Yes, I do have a vendetta against LUSH.)
> 
> Hope you liked the fic!! :)


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